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Rangering in the ’80s at Crater Lake National Park
Park Rangers do many things at their jobs, including helping people in distress. Crater Lake is a very long way from normal medical service, so when something happens, a heart attach from the high altitude at the Rim or falling off a bicycle, these first-line of safety are the boys in green! Thanks to Lloyd and Larry Smith for these photos.
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Bug in the Tree
1975 a Volkswagen bug is driven off the road and into the canyon one mile below Rim Village. The car rolled several times and the driver was thrown from the car. The driver, who had been drinking, is unhurt, but the car is a total loss.
A soldier, who was on leave, had just purchased the car and was not yet covered by insurance, Lloyd Smith, the investigating ranger wrote in 2017: “One thing about being a ranger with a camera you get to record some pretty interesting stuff. If I remember this story correctly the young man had just gotten out of the Army and he bought this Volkswagen for $900. He came to Crater Lake and spent the evening drinking on the Rim at the bar. He tried to drive down the curves below the Rim and drove off the road. It rolled several times and he was thrown out of the passenger’s window when it hit the trees. We found him below his vehicle. We hauled him up the slope and took him to the hospital . . . the verdict . . . all ok. . just drunk. We brought him back to HQ and put him to bed to sleep it off. He did not have insurance on the car. The next day my twin brother, Larry, and I went back to investigate it more and to clean up. We found some brick-like objects wrapped in aluminum foil. Our first thought was drugs. Oh, oh. But they turned out to be fruit cake.”
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Horse Rangers at Crater Lake
Ranger Marion Jack leased the horses to the park. He must have done this for 15-20 years though the 1970s and 80s. The horses were kept at the park during the summer at the corral in Sleepy Hollow. They wintered in the Medford area. We would ride the horses from the barn to the Rim each morning they were on duty on the old CCC Trail behind Headquarters. It was probably one of the best duties in the park to be a mounted ranger.
People would come from all over to pet and to look at the horses. They would ask, “How do I get a job like this”? I truly felt special, I was a lucky guy. Everybody wanted my job. The kids’ eyes would just light up and run over when they saw the horses.
The horses were used mainly on the Rim as PR and to be able to observe the park visitors. The big problem was we had to clean up after the horses. So, in uniform, with a shovel and plastic bag, we would start shoveling. We had a special area near the cafeteria where we stashed the bag and the shovel. The horses were used by the interpretative staff for some great living history programs, like the first explorers to find the lake, as in John Wesley Hillman. The horses were used to patrol the boundary areas during hunting season. The horses also were used for search and rescue.
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